SolarSquare raises $40 million in series B funding from Lightspeed

Rooftop solar startup SolarSquare has raised $40 million in a series B funding round, led by Lightspeed with participation from Lightrock. Existing investors Elevation Capital, Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon, Nithin Kamath’s Rainmatter, and Gruhas Proptech also invested in the round.

 

The company plans to use the funding to expand its operations, hire talent, and for brand building.

 

“With this round of funding, our first prerogative is to expand to 50 cities, up from 20 cities currently. We will also invest heavily in technology, talent, and branding,” Shreya Mishra, CEO, SolarSquare, told Business Standard.

 

The firm currently operates with 800 employees, and aims to double its headcount by next financial year. Most of the hiring will be in sales, customer service, and operations, Mishra said.

 

 

The company will also invest in building a state-of-the-art asset management tech stack for remote monitoring and diagnostics of residential solar systems.

 

Founded in 2015 by Mishra, Neeraj Jain, and Nikhil Nahar, SolarSquare is a full-stack residential solar brand that offers solar installations to consumers. The company handles the end-to-end experience for customers – from design to installation, government permits, enabling financing, and post-sales regular solar maintenance.

 

Since its inception, the company has covered over 20,000 homes and more than 200 cooperative housing societies across India.

 

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Solar Square, which has fast emerged as the most trusted residential solar brand in India. The clean energy transition has moved from ESG PowerPoint decks to the consumers' homes and Solar Square is well on its way to making #hargharsolar,” said Rahul Taneja, Partner, Lightspeed.

 

Said Mukul Arora, Partner at Elevation Capital: “Solar Square's full-stack approach of owning the entire customer experience has already set them apart and made the solar adoption process much simpler. With supportive policies and rising consumer awareness, SolarSquare is well-positioned to bring reliable, affordable solar energy to millions of Indian homes.”

 

Talking about how SolarSquare is generating investor interest, Mishra said that specific segments in the cleantech sector, like solar, electric vehicles (EVs), and battery manufacturing, are generating more traction from investors as they do not require high research and development expenses and patient capital.

 

“Moreover, in residential solar, we have a unique opportunity to create a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand. We are the number one residential solar brand in India, so we also have a proven track record over the last four years,” she said.

 

The company had reported a revenue of Rs 107 crore in FY23, up from Rs 81 crore in FY22. According to Mishra, SolarSquare closed FY24 with a revenue of Rs 170 crore, which is expected to double in FY25.

 

Before this round, SolarSquare had raised $19.5 million across three rounds of funding. The company also counts marquee angel investors such as Vidit Atrey and Sanjeev Barnwal of Meesho, Amit Agrawal, Saurabh Garg and Akhil Gupta of NoBroker, Ashish Goyal of UrbanLadder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Nipun Sahni of Apollo Global, Harsh Shah of GoFynd.